Long term effects of dark energy

A question I believe worthy of debate is what are the long term effects
of dark energy on the structure of the universe? Will we find ourselves
in an ever shrinking sphere of viability and will the speed up of the
expansion start to disassociate structures on an ever decreasing scale
until galaxies, solar systems, stars, planets etc.. and eventually
every point of space time is moving away from every other at C?

Dear jcamjr:

"jcamjr" wrote in message
ups.com...
A question I believe worthy of debate is what are the long term effects
of dark energy on the structure of the universe? Will we find ourselves
in an ever shrinking sphere of viability and will the speed up of the
expansion start to disassociate structures on an ever decreasing scale
until galaxies, solar systems, stars, planets etc.. and eventually
every point of space time is moving away from every other at C?

Yes, the scenario you paint is called the "Big Rip". Expected to be many
tens id not hundreds of billions years out. Observe while you can, because
the canvas is being rolled up.

David A. Smith

Developers will have massive urban renewal! But you will have to move!
(The Bush Theory)

jcamjr wrote:

A question I believe worthy of debate is what are the long term effects
of dark energy on the structure of the universe? Will we find ourselves
in an ever shrinking sphere of viability and will the speed up of the
expansion start to disassociate structures on an ever decreasing scale
until galaxies, solar systems, stars, planets etc.. and eventually
every point of space time is moving away from every other at C?

"j" == jcamjr writes:

j A question I believe worthy of debate is what are the long term
j effects of dark energy on the structure of the universe?

It's not so much a question of debate as it is an issue of data. The
long term effects are quite interesting, but we don't know enough to
do more than simply lay out the possibilities.

j Will we find ourselves in an ever shrinking sphere of viability and
j will the speed up of the expansion start to disassociate structures
j on an ever decreasing scale until galaxies, solar systems, stars,
j planets etc.. and eventually every point of space time is moving
j away from every other at C?

It depends upon what is called the "equation of state" of dark
energy. It could be that dark energy will become "weaker" in the
future. In that case, the acceleration will slow. It could be that
dark energy will remain at essentially the "same strength" in the
future. This is the most simple case, what Einstein predicted in his
cosmological constant. In that case objects in the Universe will
become progressively farther apart until future observers will be able
to see only their local group of galaxies or so. Finally, it could be
that dark energy will become "stronger" in the future. That could
lead to a "Big Rip" in which, as you say, even atoms are torn apart by
the expansion of the Universe.

Right now, though, we just don't have enough data to do more than
hazard a guess. Obviously, this is a topic of great interest.

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